The spork is the biggest thing to happen to cutlery since the Ginsu knife craze of the late eighties. But can anyone improve the spork? The folks at SparkFun think they can, and they think you’re going to love their new design.
The Semi-Horned Oblong Versatile Eating Ladle (S.H.O.V.E.L.) is a titanium spork costing just $10.00. If that’s all we said about it, it would still be a great value. But the S.H.O.V.E.L. has so much more to offer for the outdoors lover, survivalist, or multi-tool enthusiast.
Features
A generous handle provides plenty of space to wrap and stow the six feet of included paracord. Paracord, as all outdoors-people know, might be the single most useful tool anyone can have rattling around at the bottom of their backpack. The paracord doubles as a comfortable handle as well, though it is easy enough to remove the cordage if it’s time to eat some soup, and you want to keep your cord dry.
The eating end of the tool is a pretty standard spork, nicely polished for comfort and with just enough bite in the prongs to hang on to soft food. On the other end (SparkFun calls it the “business end”) is a curved, serrated blade perfect for opening packages, cutting food, or trimming the paracord, as mentioned above. The curved surface of this blade gives it some utility as a butter knife or all-purpose spreader. A deeply cut bottle-opener should grab bottle caps with ease, and the leverage provided by the length of the S.H.O.V.E.L. looks like it will make short work of any stubborn lids.
Open Source Design
If the phrase “open source” calls to mind free software and digital technology, you aren’t alone. But SparkFun has taken the concept to a whole new level. They encourage you to improve upon the S.H.O.V.E.L. – you don’t even have to buy one first. SparkFun provides all the plans, specs, and documentation you’ll need to create a multi-functional spork yourself (assuming you have the tools and materials).
We love this kind of innovative thinking, so consider heading to SparkFun.com and grabbing a S.H.O.V.E.L. for your next adventure. Who knows, maybe you’ll even come up with a way to make it better.
